Read Toxic love :: Chapter 2

Smoke still curled from the charred remains of the village,The scent of ash and scorched earth clung to everything, buildings, bodies, and the two women standing at the edge of the ruin. stood with her back straight, her eyes hard as flint, the firelight still flickering in their depths. Her cloak, once a soft forest green, was stained with smoke and blood. She didn’t flinch when the cries of survivors drifted through the smoldering wind. She had done what needed to be done.Across from her, Sylivia trembled, not from fear, but heartbreak. Her fingers curled around the locket at her throat, a gift from Lavinia back when they were just fugitives hiding in each other’s arms,She looked at the ruins of her childhood home, then back at the woman she loved more than life itself.

“Tell me this wasn’t you,” Sylivia whispered, though she already knew.

Lavinia’s jaw clenched. “It was me. And I’d do it again.”

Sylivia stepped back, tears tracing silent paths down her cheeks. Lavinia took a step forward, her voice low, pleading.

“They would’ve killed us, Sylivia. They were planning to sell you to the Scorchbind. I had to stop them. This—this was mercy.”

But mercy had never looked so much like vengeance.

Sylivia’s breath caught. The Scorchbind. She had heard the name in whispers, stories passed by travelers and rebels in hushed voices fire-worshipping fanatics who believed in rebirth through destruction. She never imagined her Lavinia, fierce, tender Lavinia was one of them.

“You followed them,” Sylivia said, her voice breaking. “All this time, you followed them.”

“I led them,” Lavinia confessed.

Silence stretched between them. Only the crackle of distant flames and the hiss of cooling stone broke the air.

“They would have taken you,” Lavinia said, stepping closer. “The Scorchbirders were here. The village elder was already negotiating your sale…..your sacrifice. I stopped it. I saved you.”

Lavinia hesitated, pain flickering across her features, but her voice stayed resolute. “You don’t understand now. But you will. One day, you’ll thank me for this.”

And then she offered her hand, bloodstained, trembling but open.

Sylivia stared at the outstretched hand, her breath shallow, lungs tight with smoke and disbelief.

The fire still roared behind them, casting flickering shadows across Lavinia’s face—beautiful and terrible in equal measure. Her eyes gleamed like molten gold, not with pride, but something fiercer. Something lonelier.

“You call this saving?” Sylivia’s voice cracked, raw from smoke and grief. “You burned my home. You killed people. Children, Lavinia.”

Lavinia flinched just barely, but enough. “Not by choice. Not all of them were innocent. Some made a deal with monsters, Sylivia. They chose you as the price.”

something in Lavinia’s gaze held her. Not triumph. Not even guilt.

Hope.

A fragile, desperate hope that felt too human for a monster.

Sylivia didn’t take her hand.

But she didn’t turn away either.

Instead, she whispered, “I hate you.”

Lavinia’s eyes softened. “That’s allowed.”